Dear Parents/Carers,
Hope everyone is well and enjoying a good summer. Again I wouldn’t normally be sending out newsletters during the summer holidays, but given the strange times we are experiencing at the moment, I would like to keep everyone updated as we approach the planned return for all pupils on Monday 7th September.
September Re-Opening
In July I set out a detailed plan to receive all our pupils on Monday 7th September. This is still based on the current government guidelines and although there have been U-turns and last minute changes recently in education (I had a granddaughter nervously awaiting her GCSE results last week!) this is still the plan for the re-opening. As I mentioned in July, our overriding aim is to keep the school day as normal as possible, do as many things as we would normally do while keeping to the guidelines and restrictions. At the moment we are still planning the arrival and departure times which I set out in the previous newsletter. We will have staggered arrival and departure times for the lower school (Years 3 and 4) and the upper school (Years 5 and 6). The times I am still currently looking at are Years 3 and 4 arriving at school between 8:30am and 8:45am and departing at 2:45pm. The Years 5 and 6 arriving between 8:50am and 9:05am and departing at 3:05pm. There will also be staggered playtimes and lunchtimes so essentially the children will remain in their year groups during the day and will not mix with other year groups. The teachers and support staff will also remain in their year groups to minimise contact. We will not be holding any whole school events for now but can still have year group Masses and assemblies etc.
- We will resume both the Breakfast Club from 7:45am to 8:30am and the After School Club from 2:45pm to 6:30pm. I will be giving more information about how you can book places in the clubs nearer the time. I would like to make the clubs more affordable, particularly when many families may have been severely financially affected during the health crisis. So not only will we not be increasing the prices but we will be offering places at reduced prices in September. Breakfast Club will be £2 per day (currently £3) and After School Club will be £5 per day up till 4:30pm and £10 per day up till 6:30pm (currently £7 and £14) with a reduced rate of £40 if you book for the week (currently £50). I would also like to use some of the additional funding which schools are being promised next year for pupil catch-up to provide some free places in the ASC for targeted children with an element of catch-up learning included. Again more details of this in September.
Uniform
I know many of you will be planning to buy uniform in readiness for the new school year in September and we also want to sell uniform to the families of our new pupils who will be starting in Year 3. We are next going to be selling uniform next week from Wednesday 2nd to Friday 4th September (9:00am to 3:00pm each day). We will not be increasing our uniform prices for the new school year as again we want to make it affordable for everyone.
End of Year Reports
I was able to e-mail all the remaining reports which had not been sent home or collected in the last week of July before we finally closed for the summer. If you did not receive the report please contact the school. I will still send home the remaining paper reports when we return to school so everyone should receive the report by then.
Refurbishment Work
As you will know, we were able to complete most of the refurbishment work in school during the first part of the lockdown period. This included new lighting in all the classrooms, and halls plus the removal of asbestos in all the Year 3 and 4 classrooms and main hall with new ceilings being put in. The last part of the work which included the removal of asbestos in the lower school corridor and toilets plus my own room with again new ceilings and lighting then being installed, was due to take place during August, after the Summer Scheme finished and before we returned in September. Unfortunately due to some issues and delays between the different companies involved in the work, they couldn’t guarantee to get everything completed and tidied up by this Friday which was my deadline. To avoid any unnecessary problems with re-opening the school, I have asked them to postpone the work to the October half term.
Year 6 Leavers’ BBQ
Unfortunately we will not be able to hold this next week due to a variety of reasons. I have written to the Year 6 parents separately to let them know. I am very disappointed that we cannot do this as it would have been lovely to say a proper goodbye.
Year 3 Transition Visit
Normally the new Year 3 pupils who are starting in September would have had a transition visit in July but unfortunately this was not possible. However they will be spending the morning with us next Friday, along with some pupils who are joining the other year groups. They will meet their teachers, spend time in their classrooms and get a feel for the school before they start formally with everyone else on Monday 7th.
Although it was great that we have had a lot of the pupils back last term during the lockdown period, we also know that a significant number of pupils were not in school. As previously mentioned I took care not to put pressure on parents to send their children back to school last term and respected which ever decision you chose to make. However the government has made it clear that they expect all children to now return to school in September. I do not wish in any way to impose fines for non-attendance in September as this would be counter-productive and I would much prefer to maintain a positive relationship with all of you and work with you. We all hope and pray that the current situation in the country will continue to improve with no spikes or local lockdowns, at least in London, which can affect confidence and understandably make parents reluctant to send their children back in September.
Apologies for repeating myself but I just want to revisit the two points I made back in July. Firstly the measures we put in place during those months worked and kept both pupils and staff safe while in school. Secondly as a parent and grandparent myself, I would strongly urge and encourage you to send your children back to school in September. As I have mentioned, we will be focusing a lot on catch-up lessons and a curriculum which is broad and balanced and fully engages the children. If your child was not in school for even the first few weeks next term, they would be at a huge disadvantage and to be honest may not catch up fully, no matter what we put in place. I really want to use that first week back to get everything in place, get the children used to how school will run so we can then focus on the learning. This will be easier if we have everyone back on 7th September. All the staff will be in school for three days next week to get everything ready for the return of pupils.
I hope everyone enjoys the last part of the summer break and let’s hope the weather improves for the bank holiday weekend coming up. I will send out another newsletter next week just to confirm the arrangements for the start of term and any changes that are announced in the next few days.
Very best wishes to everyone and see you soon.
Yours sincerely,
J Alexander (Head teacher)
